Rhapsody is so people oriented and attention seeking that she's a joy to work with. I haven't had many days to do that though, as other chores keep me busy and the bitter cold doesn't leave me warm enough to stay in it very long.
Sure hope this cold snap ends soon- I wanna start the colts on english saddle and saddle pads, and not freeze myself in the process.
Today I went Black Friday shopping with Luke. But not the typical shopping in retail stores- instead it was to answer a Facebook ad...
It was nearly a 3 hour drive there but SO worth the trip! We stopped for lunch in Tomah WI at a bar n grill which had the best Bleu cheese burger I've ever tasted, and such huge portions. Luke actually got carded cuz he ordered a beer, and it was funny cuz he usually never does. Great place to eat!
We had such a huge score on this Decker style pack saddle, for $400, which we split the cost 50/50.
Then she offered all kinds of incredible bargains- Luke got a Dr Cook bitless bridle for $20.
I got a Rembrandt Dressage saddle for $100, with peacock stirrups and leathers, pads and Girth.
I also got 3 leather cruppers for $5 each.
Then she gave us a whole tote of halters and lead ropes and miscellaneous stuff so she didn't have to pack it (they were moving to MO by xmas) and a purple saddle stand.
It was so generous and I absolutely cannot wait to clean up and try out this new gear.
Today the colts were gelded and had thier wolf teeth removed as well. Glad to have it all done in one surgery. They'll get pain meds for a couple days but all looks great.
It was sunny but cold all day, which was great cuz no mud then.
The vet also determined thier age to be 9-10 months. It's so awesome to finally have that mystery solved. At the same time, maybe they would have gotten thicker necks had I put it off till spring. But since they're sharing a pen with fillies, I really don't want to deal with early pregnancy or anything like that. So it's fine.
Now it's just a matter of letting them heal and then they can start getting more education.
Starting with bridles- and any matching breastcollars are noted with *
Hunter/ All Purpose Bridles
1. Weaver Leather Fancy Stitch bridle & reins. Horse size. Havana . Has Full Cheek Snaffle with copper mouthpiece bit. *
2. Weaver Leather Square Raised bridle with laced reins. Oakbark. Horse size. Has Full cheek Snaffle with copper mouthpiece Bit and matching Bit keepers
3. Weaver Leather Square Raised bridle & laced reins. Horse size. Oakbark. Has Offset Western D Snaffle with copper mouthpiece bit
4. Older, Flat Hunt bridle from 1960s. No reins. Oakbark. (Pictured together with #5)
5. Older, Flat Hunt bridle from 1960s. No reins. Oakbark . No reins (Pictured together with #4 )
6. Gatsby english bridle pieces- to make complete bridle. Cob size. Havana. Has DaVinci Figure 8 noseband, also Havana. Has TABELO Ring Dogbone Snaffle bit, stainless steel . No reins.
.7. Gatsby english bridle pieces to make a bridle. No Cavesson. Cob size. Havana.
8. Collegiate Fancy stitched padded bridle & laced reins. Horse size. Oakbark. Has Collegiate Figure 8 noseband. Quarter horse size. Has Western Offset Dee Snaffle with copper mouthpiece bit. This was Twista's bridle
9. Collegiate Plain Raised bridle & rubber lined reins. Quarter horse size. Oakbark. Has Korsteel Full cheek Snaffle bit. This was Twista's other bridle. *
10. Secondhand. Unknown brand but high quality Plain Raised bridle with Flash. Has laced reins. Horse size. Dark Oakbark. Has Offset Western Dee Snaffle with twisted Sweet iron and copper mouthpiece
11. Suffolk (Secondhand) Fancy stitched Bridle and laced reins. Horse size. Havana . Has Stainless steel O rings with copper mouthpiece bit
12. Suffolk (bought new) Fancy Stitch Raised bridle and laced reins. Horse size. Havana. Has D bit with Stainless steel and Copper Rollers
13. Gatsby Square Raised bridle with laced reins. Cob size. Havana. Has Western Offset Dee Snaffle with copper mouthpiece bit. Bought for Tango and she never got to wear it.
14. Gatsby Square Raised bridle with laced reins. Cob size. Havana. Has TOBELO Double Ring 3 peice Snaffle bit with Lozenge
15. Gatsby Square Raised bridle with laced reins. Cob size. Havana.
16. Gatsby Square Raised bridle with laced reins. Cob size. Havana
17. Gatsby Square Raised bridle with laced reins. Cob size. Havana
18. Gatsby Plain Raised bridle with laced reins. Horse size. Havana
19. Gatsby Fancy Stitch Raised bridle with laced reins. Has Collegiate Figure 8 noseband. Horse size. Havana. Has Dee Snaffle bit with copper mouthpiece.
20. Gatsby Plain Raised bridle with laced reins. Horse size. Havana. Has Korsteel 5.5" Full cheek Snaffle with Slow twist mouthpiece
21. Secondhand Unknown brand
22. Secondhand Unknown brand
Hunter/Eventing Breastcollars
1. Collegiate Plain Raised breastcollar. Horse size. Oakbark
2. Weaver Leather Fancy stitched Breastcollar. Horse size. Havana
Miscellaneous Hunt/Eventing English Tack
1. Wintec All Purpose Straight English Girth. Size 46. Brown. Have 2 of these.
2. Collegiate Plain Raised Cavesson. Quarter horse size. Oakbark
3. DaVinci Fancy stitched Figure 8 noseband. Cob size. Havana
4 DaVinci Plain Raised Figure 8 noseband. Cob size. Havana (Currently on a Gatsby Cob size bridle - #6 in the list above)
5. DaVinci Plain Raised Figure 8 noseband Horse size. Havana
6. Gatsby Fancy Stitch Raised Cavesson. Horse size. Havana
All Purpose and Jumper Saddle Pads
1. Roma Waffle Weave AP pad. Hunter Green with Burgundy piping
2. Roma AP Pad. White with royal blue trim
3.
Dressage Bridles
1. Weaver Leather Dressage bridle with Flash & laced reins. Horse size. Black with black padding. Has Korsteel Offset Western Dee Snafflen or Pinchless Snaffle. Also has dropped browband that I created with glass pearl and silver rhinestones. Browband for this bridle has white ribbon tied to it
2. Corbette Dressage bridle. No reins. Horse size. Black with black padding. Has cheap Snaffle bit that needs replacing
3. Not sure of brand but high quality, older Dressage bridle with laced reins. Conker color with white padding and padded crank noseband. Has bit. This was Dusty's bridle.
4. Dover Debut Dressage bridle with Flash & web reins. Cob size. Black with black padding.
5. DaVinci Dressage/ Eventing combo bridle with Flash and web rubber reins. Black with black padding. Horse size. Has Sweet iron O ring Snaffle bit
Miscellaneous Dressage Tack
1. Collegiate Black Dressage breastcollar with white stitching. Horse size
2. Wintec Black Dressage Girth. Have 1 regular Straight in black and 1 long Straight Black
3. Curved padded browband, with pearls and silver rhinestones that I sewed onto it. Currently on the Weaver Leather Dressage bridle
4. Nylon string Dressage Girth
5. Black felt and elastic Dressage Girth
6. Black polo wraps by Weaver Leather
Dressage Saddle Pads
1. Roma Dressage saddle pad. Black with white piping. Diamond quilting
2.
My goal is to have a wall of bridles all fitted and ready for use. With many different styles of bits , in many different styles of tooling and colors.
For Western and for English bridles.
And different sizes as well naturally,
And with the horsebarn getting fixed up next year, there will be a tackroom to design! And it's finally gonna be a dream come to life.
So I'm going to get organized and take inventory of what all I have and what all I need for bridle hangers and so forth. And those will probably be a DIY project.
Seems to be the current vibe lately, and so I'm just gonna dump my thoughts here for now. There's just been so much going on lately and the basics are getting done, but it's not leaving much energy left for otherwise. Still waiting on a few ewes to lamb, and the hogbarns are a bit of extra work now. Cim injuries are being handled but it's discouraging at how slow healing is. I try to stay positive but it is hard sometimes! The colts get a bit of attention daily but lately Cim's been the focus , and hogbarns.
In the house, I worked 1 Sunday afternoon on a needlework- first time anything artsy since Oct retreat. That gets me down too, cuz there's alot of beautiful things to do but I'm just too tired lately. Maybe it's aging, maybe it's giving up coffee, and maybe it's blood pressure pills now- or a combination of all 3. But it leaves me trying to dog paddle through everything and trying to stay "connected to the joy " as it were.
Been trying to get violins ready and that too was a high to low. Cuz a freind of a friend was supposed to be this great violin fixer and such. And while he is very talented and kind, essentially it was a waste of my $ to have him do stuff cuz "it's good enough, don't worry about it ' is the style. And while that works for him who's been playing for decades- it's not for me as a beginner and is certainly not good for my instruments as I am learning from an actual Luthier. Sigh. Besides poor alignment jobs he's scratched and dinged my violins too and pretending not to notice.
The ones I'd had him fix up are also all rigged to his style of fiddler playing and his preferences- so he went ahead and modified them quite a bit, and even used broken parts to do so, cuz that is all what he had on hand after he ruined my bridge on one.
Twice now this freind talked a big talk about something but reality was sub par and an expensive lesson. It almost seems like a pattern now that they want to be this source of grand opportunity for something really great that I'll "owe" them for- but it's actually nothing like all the hype they do. And a big let down that just costs me wasted time and money. I will have to be wary in future of any big ideas they have- chances are its a big deal in thier head and nowhere else. Moving forward, Gary was a nice guy, very kind and talented, but I won't be letting him monkey with my violins any longer. Visit with? Sure. But not messing with my stuff.
At the end of the day it's still my instruments and my $. I'll be money ahead letting a professional take care of stuff rather than people who have bigger confidence than what thier abilities actually are. I guess that can be said for the freind too.
I want the violins in good shape and to begin lessons again. Hopefully after Xmas.
What I need to get cracking on NOW is painting ornaments for Xmas- usually I'm done by Halloween but not even started yet. I'll tackle that this Sunday if Jeff doesn't scramble the plans. Weekends are like that though.
I also ain't been spending time with mil either. She's either been horrible bitchy or overly sweet and since I do not trust her I ain't believing that she's had any change of heart. It's nothing but spider and the fly when she's being nice. She's been over a couple times now and fn just walks into the house like she fn owns it. And then expect everyone to drop what they're doing to pander to her.
I'm looking forward to shitty weather when she won't leave her house.
Her reason for yesterday visiting was to ruin Xmas by announcing Robin and her family are coming for Xmas. Big fat hairy deal. But we'll all be expected to be as excited about it as they are and par the course- it'll be nauseous stress for us over nothing but abject stupidity.
She also dropped big hints about Xmas decorating " all those boxes to get out" and I just played dumb. I wasn't volunteering to be at her mercy for that shit. She enjoys doing that with other people- she only enjoys bossing me around, so I ain't wasting my time. She'll find some other "volunteer " and make a great fuss over them for my sake- intending to make me jealous or shamed it should've been me. It is to laugh.
I'm just done with her and all her bullshit .
Dr's orders to cut stress and she's 95% of it.
So that's the way it has to be and finding joy is paramount
Sometimes it all gets overwhelming and then it just puts me in freeze mode where I don't wanna do anything with any of it, even the joyful stuff cuz there's a backlog of chores and housework screaming instead. And it just gets a spiral.
I really need to refresh my brain
Things with Jeff are great. Things with Jake and Luke are great. The house, though messy, is still a haven, a place of peace, for all who live in it. I comfort myself with that fact cuz it could be obsessively cleaned like mils (when it's really not, that's an act) but not be a haven for anyone. Just a cold display of stuff -and anxiety with eggshells to walk upon.
There's also some planning for future, where I'd be working at Liz's store in Osage . I dunno the details yet as she has to figure out things, but it would be nice I think. It wouldn't interfere with the hogbarns schedule and be nice to get out for a couple days. And she's willing to work around my farming schedules too, which is great. As January gets closer I'll know more.
And I ain't saying anything to mil about it either. She doesn't need opportunity to sabotage my plans. And she would buck at the idea of my not being available 24/7 for her real, imaginary, or self inflicted problems and bullshit. It's been proven in the past. I no longer give her ammo to destroy me with.
But working would take time away from my colts, I will have to figure out a way to compensate that. And yet at the same time, it would be only a few days a month so it's not terribly much either. But I'd have to configure everything else too. Still, I look forward to it. Next week I work a day as well and that'll be fun. It's sure different working in a "fun" store where people come to find joy and pretties - than it was working in Healthcare where people didn't really have a choice but to be there.
I think I'm quite ready for another adventure.....
And here goes for the English gear Wishlist
1. Jump poles, posts and cups
2. Full seat breeches
3. Paddock boots
4. Tall boots, Ariat
5. Dressage saddle pads in a rainbow of colors (except lemon and neon orange)
6. All purpose saddle pads in the same color ranges
7. Splint boots
8. Matching Bell boots
9. Oakbark english bridles in Horse size and Cob size
10. New stirrup leathers black dressage
11. Peacock stirrups
12. Waxed linen cord in various colors to match manes and tails
13. A bigger TACK CLOSET for all the English bridles - or perhaps one for Horse size and one for Cob size
14. Black Dressage cavesson, Horse size
15. Weymouth bridle
16. Snaffle bits, various mouth peice. 5". Need 5 for the Cob bridles and several for the Horse size
17. New stirrup leathers, various shades of brown to match saddles
18. Gatsby Plain Raised english cavesson, Cob size, Havana
19. Brushing boots, black
20. Training surcingal and long reins
21. 5 Point Breastplate
22. Bling browbands for Dressage in these colors- Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald and Diamonds . Straight and U band style. Cob size & Horse size
23. Stirrup covers. Or pattern to make my own.
24.
...has been sunny but very cold for the most part. Except for 1 day it was 46* and then below zero the next- ugh. Makes it hard on everyth...
